Rajalingam Raja, Ph.D., FRCPath., D(ABHI)
- Professor of Surgery
- Director, Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory
Contact Information
Department of Surgery, Box 0508
3333 California Street, Suite 150
San Francisco, CA 94143
415-476-3883 Phone
415-476-0379 Fax
[email protected]
Education
University of Madras, India. B.Sc., 1984
Bharathiyar University, India. M.Sc., 1988
University of Madras, India. M.Phil., 1989
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India. Ph.D., 1996
Biography
Dr. Rajalingam Raja serves as the Laboratory Director, Clinical Consultant and Technical Supervisor for the UCSF Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory. Dr. Raja received his Ph.D. from the Department of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Six-years of pre-doctoral studies in HLA diversity, followed by six-years of post-doctoral research in NK cell immunogenetics at Stanford, plus eighteen-years of experience in clinical histocompatibility laboratory directorship in the high volume transplant centers at UCLA and UCSF have shaped Dr. Raja into one of the uniquely experienced investigators committed to the fields of histocompatibility, immunogenetics and transplant immunology.
Awards & Honors
Research Overview
Natural killer (NK) have been implicated in control and clearance of malignant and virally infected cells, regulation of adaptive immune responses, rejection of bone marrow transplants, autoimmunity and the maintenance of pregnancy. Human NK cells largely use a family of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-specific Killer cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIR) to recognize and respond to the unhealthy target cells. KIR and HLA loci are both polygenic and substantially polymorphic, and they map to distinct human chromosomes (Chromosomes 19 and 6, respectively).
KIR and HLA gene families segregate independently, yielding many individuals who express KIR receptors for which they lack HLA class I ligands, and vice versa, thus creating human diversity in the number and type of KIR-HLA inherited gene pairs, which potentially could influence the health and disease status of a given individual. The overall goal of our research is to understand the diversity of KIR receptors, HLA ligands, and KIR-HLA gene combinations in populations and their relevance in human health and disease.
Publications
MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 101
- Roll GR, Bray RA, Cooper M, Eagar TN, Gebel HM, Vranic GM, Hitchman KMK, Houp J, Kamoun M, Killian J, Kim J, Kumar V, Levine M, Lovasik BP, Lunow-Luke T, Parsons RF, Pattanayak V, Ranch D, Shah A, Stock PG, Timofeeva OA, Trofe-Clark J, Wongjirad C, Yeh H, Yi S, Rajalingam R. COVID-19 infection and vaccination rarely impact HLA antibody profile in waitlisted renal transplant candidates- a multicenter cohort. Hum Immunol. 2023 Apr; 84(4):278-285. View in PubMed
- Raghav PK, Raghav A, Lathwal A, Saxena A, Mann Z, Sengar M, Rajalingam R. Experimental and clinical data analysis for identification of COVID-19 resistant ACE2 mutations. Sci Rep. 2023 02 09; 13(1):2351. View in PubMed
- Duan M, Nguyen DC, Joyner CJ, Saney CL, Tipton CM, Andrews J, Lonial S, Kim C, Hentenaar I, Kosters A, Ghosn E, Jackson A, Knechtle S, Maruthamuthu S, Chandran S, Martin T, Rajalingam R, Vincenti F, Breeden C, Sanz I, Gibson G, Eun-Hyung Lee F. Human Bone Marrow Plasma Cell Atlas: Maturation and Survival Pathways Unraveled by Single Cell Analyses. bioRxiv. 2023 Jan 20. View in PubMed
- Calabrese DR, Chong T, Singer JP, Rajalingam R, Hays SR, Kukreja J, Leard L, Golden JA, Lanier LL, Greenland JR. CD16+ natural killer cells in bronchoalveolar lavage are associated with antibody-mediated rejection and chronic lung allograft dysfunction. Am J Transplant. 2023 01; 23(1):37-44. View in PubMed
- Gravina A, Tediashvili G, Rajalingam R, Quandt Z, Deisenroth C, Schrepfer S, Deuse T. Protection of cell therapeutics from antibody-mediated killing by CD64 overexpression. Nat Biotechnol. 2023 05; 41(5):717-727. View in PubMed
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